Mr Harris said: “The extremely large amount of money owed to local authorities by developers will come as a shock to taxpayers across this country.

“Development levies are meant to be paid upfront before any development commences. If councils came to arrangements with developers to pay levies on a phased basis then they clearly had a duty to ensure that these levies were paid.

“We now need answers from our local authorities about why such a large sum of money is outstanding, how much of this money they realistically expect to be in a position to recoup, and what processes are in place to ensure that developers pay the bills owed to the Irish taxpayer.

Mr Harris claimed the figures reflected the lack of structures and controls in place in local authorities under the former Fianna Fáil-led government.

He noted that more than €300 million of outstanding levies had now been classified as long-term, which he said, indicated that these levies were due to be paid some time ago and were never recouped by the council.

“To be quite frank, these figures raise questions and suspicions on the relationships that existed in Celtic Tiger Ireland. The close relationship at the time between developers and the Fianna Fáil-led Government is well known.

Last month, Wicklow County Council said it intend to pursue homeowners in a number of estates for sums of up to €4,800 after the developer of the estate failed to pay the relevant levy.

The council’s rationale was that development levies were “a charge on the property itself, not on an individual or a developer”.